The Fitness Adviser

Do you ever wonder why many people are still overweight, despite YEARS of trying to burn fat and lose weight to no avail? While other people  seem to be able to burn fat and lose weight EASILY, with putting in LITTLE effort.

Well, you’ll find out why here. And no – it doesn’t have to do with genetics.

The answer is that people who have been trying to burn fat and lose weight for years are TRYING TOO HARD! Weight loss and fat loss is a science, but it is not a DIFFICULT science. If anything – it’s a simple one. Eat less and exercise!

Yes, there are special ways of going about doing it. But many of the products out there are purposely complicated for no other reason than to TRICK you that there’s some secret pill or ab blaster that will give you the body you want without dealing with real exercise or nutrition. It’s simply impossible!

Have you ever noticed that there are two entirely different health movements with very little crossover? There is the group of organic whole foods consumers and the group of people who buy health and fitness supplements. I used to be much more familiar with the typical GNC type of supplements, but didn't know squat about things like Kombucha, Cod Liver Oil, Spirulina, etc. I think both groups have some positive things to offer and I would like to explore that in this post. Note: I was going to name this article "Whole Food Stores vs Supplement Stores", but how boring is that? Plus, then I couldn't put up this sweet pic! (said in the voice of Napoleon Dynamite).

["Hey Man, check out this mean batch of Homemade Hummus!" ... "Bro, how many more sets you got left on the bench?"]

Welcome to Passionate Fitness!

For those of you who are new here, Passionate Fitness is a community based fitness site where people can read and submit articles, workout plans, and recipes, upload pictures, make friends, use forums and more. For more information about us read the about section and the guide to using the site.

Make sure to participate in our Invite a Friend contest with up to $1000 in cash prizes!

 

You love being in shape, and you love looking good and feeling strong. The problem is that you hate hitting the gym. It’s not that you don’t enjoy fitness. You do. You just were never able to get into arbitrarily lifting heavy things and putting them back down, no matter how much you tried.

Thankfully, there’s more than one way to get strong and fit. Here are 5 activities that will help you get that rock hard body you’re after:

Lee Evans with Ato Boldon:

 

 

Long distance running has been popular for enough time now that it’s starting to be safe to say that it’s not a fad. But just because something is popular doesn’t mean it’s good for you. Here are the top 10 reasons why you shouldn’t do long distance running:

10. It Wears Down Your Body. If you’ve ever read Runner’s World, you know how many of their stories focus on healing injuries, professional runners who were off their feet for years, old time runners who ran long distances despite getting sick because of it, and so on. Some people are born with the kind of genetics that they can do marathon running for years without injury, but for most people it takes a toll and they’re putting themselves at risk for injury.

Before I started doing CrossFit in 2007, I was blissfully unaware of the term “tabata,” but now it’s part of my everyday vocabulary. Lucky me.

The Tabata Protocol consists of 20 seconds of maximum intensity exercise, followed by 10 seconds of rest. The cycle is repeated eight times for a total of four minutes of work. It’s named after Izumi Tabata, Ph.D., a former researcher at Japan’s National Institute of Fitness and Sports.

According the man himself,

“[Six to 8 very hard 20 second intervals with 10 second rest periods] may be one of the best possible training protocols…”– Izumi Tabata, Ph.D.

This Men’s Fitness article — “The secret of Tabata: this 14-minute workout may be the best you’ve ever had!” — gets into a some of the science.

 

 

 

There are a few general concepts about fitness that you have to really have a handle on before you can really get into great shape. By getting into great shape, I mean getting strong, fast, lean and muscular. First let me tell you the first steps you have to take in order to start reaching your goals:

1) Believe you can do it. If you don’t tell yourself that you WILL accomplish your goals, and you will get into great shape, then you won’t. The first obstacle you have to conquer to reach your goals is yourself.

2) Know the steps to reach your goals. When I was a teenager, I used to do pull ups all the time to get a great chest. I could never understand that despite being able to do more and more, nothing was happening. That was until one day someone pointed out that my upper back was much more ripped than the rest of my body. That was my first lesson in learning that where you feel an exercise is also the muscle that’s getting worked. This article will essentially elaborate on this concept.

The problem with many body weight exercises like push ups is that once you get strong, low reps stop challenging the muscle. I am a firm believer in including a decent amount of high-tension lifting to maximize muscle definition. Typically, high-tension is achieved by doing heavy weights for low reps. The problem with body weight exercise is that there isn't really a practical way to add weight to your body. What if I told you there was a way to achieve super-high tension in any body weight exercise, allowing you to build muscle density and increased definition over time? Well that is exactly the tip I would like to talk about today!

[I figured a nice autumn picture with a "Human Female Chameleon" would be appropriate for this article. Better than some guy doing push ups...yawn.]

Today I would like to post an exclusive guest post by Anna Dornier from Path to Fat Loss. Anna was recently certified as a Russian Kettlebell Instructor by Pavel Tsatsouline himself. This is like the Navy Seals of personal training, in my opinion. Not easy at all! This certainly peaked my interest. Kettlebell workouts are tough, but getting certified at Pavel's school is a whole different deal. In this guest post, Anna is going to address whether a woman should train like a man. So many people have various opinions on this, that I predict some serious discussions in the comment section. Bring it on!

[I think most women want to be fit while still looking feminine. The argument is on what type of training to achieve that look.]

Should Women Do the Same Type of Workouts as Men?
-by Anna Dornier RKC; NASM, CPT
http://www.pathtofatloss.com

Your basal metabolic rate is the number of calories your body burns, not including calories burned from daily activity. I realize that calorie counting and knowing your BMR may seem like an "old school" approach to dropping body fat, but an understanding of these numbers will help if you are stuck. I want to discuss your BMR and why many people simply eat too many calories per day when trying to lose weight. We will also discuss the fact that people overestimate the effect that adding muscle has on increasing the BMR.

[I wasn't planning on throwing in another Halloween photo, but this picture was too good to pass up.]

Understanding BMR Is Going to Help You Get Lean Quickly

The total calories you burn in a day are a sum of your BMR plus any calories burned through activity. The biggest number in this equation is your basal metabolic rate…the amount of calories you burn in addition to this is much smaller in comparison. A common mistake I see made on a regular basis is that people simply overestimate how many calories they burn through activity. Also…many people believe the regular rules don't apply to them.

I actually don't believe in the term fitness expert. I don't consider myself an expert. I am a student of fitness. I consider the other bloggers, readers, people who comment, and product owners as one big mastermind. I soak up knowledge, look at and consider the newest philosophies and fine-tune my approach over time. What I recommend today is slightly different than what I would have recommended 2 years ago. Two years from now, it will be slightly different than today.

[I can easily understand how someone could be completely thrown off by all the conflicting advice online. With the Internet, this becomes even more confusing. There has never been so much information available at the click of a button.]

Almost an Unlimited Amount of Approaches Will Work

With fitness, there are so many effective approaches to achieving the same result. Take me for example…my favorite method of training is low volume heavy weight training under a calorie deficit. I also like to add in HIIT followed by a bit of steady state cardio. This allows people to get stronger while dropping body fat at the same time, which increases muscle definition at a rapid rate…without increasing muscle size. Is my method, the only one that I believe in? Not by a mile…